‘Boss’ Chris Christie: How I’d solve it

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says the shutdown in Washington can be blamed on everybody, but it is especially a failure of leadership on the part of the president.

“No matter where the partisanship is, the failure is in people not bringing people together to get it done. My approach would be, as the executive, is to call in the leaders of the Congress, the legislature, whatever you’re dealing with and say that we’re not leaving this room until we fix this problem. Because I’m the boss, I’m in charge,” Christie said hours before the government shut down on Monday night after Congress failed to reach a deal on funding.

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Resolving the debate is the job of the president or governor, the potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate said Monday afternoon at an event with the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, according to video from the governor’s office.

“When you’re the executive, if you’re waiting for leadership from the legislative branch of government … you’re going to be waiting forever,” Christie said. “While there’s blame to go around for the Republicans in the House for not coming to consensus even amongst themselves … and the Democrats in the Senate for not looking for ways to try to compromise with the Republicans in the House, there’s also blame that goes onto the president as well.”

Christie said the problem is that leaders “talk at each other” and don’t talk to each other. The two worst spots in Washington, he said, are the microphone bank outside Congress “where they all run to talk to reporters to say nasty things about the other side” and outside the West Wing in the driveway, where “they stand there and kick the crap out of the president or anybody else they just met with.”

The governor said he’d put a “big international ‘no’ sign” at those two spots.

“If we were able to eliminate those two spots and instead said to them … ‘You can only go to those spots after you’ve actually had a real meeting where people have tried to really solve problems, then you go to the press,’” Christie said.

The government began shutting down at midnight on Tuesday after the House and Senate failed to reach a deal on a continuing resolution to fund government past Sept. 30.